Taking October by the Forelock— By h. s. Adams, 



Connec- 

 ticut 



A HALF DOZEN EASY-TO-MOVE OLD FAVORITES THAT EVERY GARDEN MUST HAVE — 

 EARLY BLOOMING PLANTS THAT ARE BEST MOVED IN FALL TO GAIN A YEAR'S TIME 



MOST growers of flowers are mere 

 potterers. They let their enthusi- 

 asm come into being in May, when it 

 should be full three months old, and 

 "incontinently perish" with the "dog days." 

 By September they are quite satisfied to 

 gaze on the waning glory of the garden 

 and stave off havoc of the early frosts 

 as best they may. 



Now late September is a very proper time 

 for satisfaction and all that, but it is also a 

 very proper time for a lot of tall thinking. 

 For a garden worth the name is never 

 finished; and this happens to be a particu- 

 larly good month in which to plan things 

 and to do things against a spring that is 

 coming as sure as fate. 



There is that old-fashioned garden of 

 yours that you started — and finished — ■ 

 this year. That needs your concentrated 

 thought, and effort, right now. Some 

 things you could not plant in the spring; 

 you can plant them in September and Octo- 

 ber. Set about it before you lose a year. 



PRIMROSES AND COWSLIPS 



Last spring you were fascinated by those 

 hardy primulas that you saw in a neighbor's 

 garden that was thoughtfully allowed to have 

 late April and early May in its calendar, as 

 was always the custom in days long gone by. 

 Of course, you were going "to have some of 

 those," and, also of course, you have taken 

 it out in "going to"; and when next spring 

 comes along you will be making precisely 

 the same remark, that sounds like a resolu- 



The old red peony (P. Officinalis), flowering in May, 

 has rich dark crimson flowers 



Crown imperials, in spite of the onion odor, are 

 indispensable. Flower reddish orange 



tion, but has dwindled into a mere observa- 

 tion. If your neighbor cannot spare a root 

 or two, look around for the real old gardens 

 where they have flourished since the colonists 

 brought the original stock from England. 

 Should you find none you will doubtless come 

 across other hardy plants that may be had 

 for the asking. Hardy primulas may be 

 moved any time in September, but the earlier 

 the better; and if the clumps are fairly 

 large several plants may be made by separa- 

 tion — taking the crowns and pulling them 

 apart by a sidewise motion so as not to 

 break the tangled roots. Both the polyan- 

 thus {Primula polyantha) and the cowslip, or 

 "sweet keys" {Primula veris) are to be 

 found in old gardens, though in some locali- 

 ties they have nearly run out. If you do not 

 care for the association buy some plants now, 

 rather than in the spring — when the chances 

 are that you will put it off so late that you 

 will lose a year's precious flowering. You 

 can get a dozen of the common cowslip as 

 low as a dollar, and the improved variety 

 (var. superba) for a dollar and a half, which 

 is also the price of polyanthus. 



BLEEDING HEART 



Then there is that bleeding heart that 

 was in your mind when you saw it in bloom 

 last May. Among old-fashioned folk it is 

 an event in the family when this "seal 

 flower" is disturbed, and I know of one 

 dame of the long ago who would not even 

 allow a flower to be picked, so "choice" 

 was she of it. By casting about a bit, 

 122 



however, you may be able to find someone 

 who will be glad to give you a root, if it can 

 be possibly spared; there are, happily, few 

 miser's gardens. Bleeding heart is better 

 lifted in the fall because it makes an early 

 start in the spring, and for the same reason 

 it is wiser to buy it in September if it must 

 be purchased — always the last resort in an 

 old-fashioned garden of sentiment. Dicentra 

 (or Dielytra) spectabilis is the name to order 

 it by; at least one nurseryman had never 

 heard of bleeding heart until this summer, 

 although he was carrying the plant in stock. 

 For fifteen cents you can get a root, sorry- 

 looking enough, but capable of spreading 

 its foliage to a circumference of six feet in 

 three years. The plumy bleeding heart 

 {D. formosa) which costs the same, is well 

 worth buying with it, though it is not an old- 

 fashioned flower. It is only about fifteen 

 inches high, the foliage is handsome and the 

 small pink flowers straggle along from spring 

 to midsummer. 



THE OLD RED PEONY 



Another plant that you were "going to 

 have" is the old red peony, the pride of our 

 grandmothers. This is also a good perennial 

 to look for now. Anyone who has it can tell 

 it from the other peonies; you may be sure 

 of that. Like the "bleeding heart," the red 

 "piny" is not so common as it once was; nor 

 is it given away freely, being slower of growth 

 than the white and pink varieties. In a town 

 where I know almost all the flower-lovers, 

 I have been three years getting hold of even 





The German irises show the greatest range of color 

 and bloom over a long season 



